Helicopter Shark

The fake photo

Helicopter Shark is a composition of two photographs that gives the impression that a great white shark is leaping out of the water attacking military personnel climbing a suspended ladder attached to a special forces UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. The photo was widely circulated via an email in 2001, along with a claim that it had been chosen as "National Geographic Photo of the Year". The email in question was usually written in the following form: "AND YOU THINK YOUR [sic] HAVING A BAD DAY AT WORK !!" The photo is similar to an incident in the 1966 film Batman where a shark attacks Batman on a ladder from a helicopter. This raised suspicions that the photo in question was a hoax. National Geographic publicly disavowed the photo and the claimed award as a hoax.[1][2]

The hoax has been discussed in various texts, including a marketing book to teach lessons about influence[3] and a book on teaching critical thinking.[4]

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